46. Sunset Park, Vancouver

After correcting my typo in the co-ordinates I had entered for Sunset Park, we were finally able to go out and find it after daycare today! The park is split in two by Prince Edward Street; the west side is a dog off-leash area and home to "Sunrise to Sunset", a geocache we stopped off to find before walking over to the playground, which was on the east side of the park. There were two structures here, but neither of them was very Charlotte-friendly. She couldn't climb up onto either of them without at least getting a boost from me. "Too much for me!" she kept saying in frustration. She had a go on the swings and so all was not lost - and she enjoyed pushing Owlie on the swings too. As we walked back to the car afterwards, we passed through the off-leash area where lots more dogs were hanging out since the first time we had been by, so we stopped so that Charlotte could give them a pat. We chatted with a couple with a new puppy and she asked me how it had been having a dog and a small baby to look after. I said that it had been fine because Theo is much older now and doesn't have all the energy he used to have as a puppy. "I don't know how I would have managed a baby and a puppy at the same time!" I said. Oops. Because then she told me that she had found out she was pregnant just after they got the puppy - she was only three months along. So I congratulated them and told them that they would be just fine - they would do what they needed to do to make it work. That probably sounded like too little too late after what I had said before I knew she was pregnant! It was actually very sweet - she sounded like she couldn't believe her own words as she said them - I think I was probably one of the first strangers she had told after getting through her first three months. Lovely! The playground is located at N 49.13.382 W123.05.793:  https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI&hl=en

23. Hume Park, New Westminster

Today was the most beautiful day of the year so far!  Did you notice the shorts?!?  After I spent the afternoon locked away at work, Charlotte and I headed out to Hume Park, not too far from Blackford Island.  The park was teeming with people - why wouldn't it be on such a beautiful evening?  This park has a bit of everything: a dog off-leash park, an outdoor pool, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, a lacrosse box, a waterpark, and a playground for little kids and big.  Lower Hume Park is much less developed; there is a picnic shelter, but mostly it's just a big grassy space on the banks of the Brunette River - where you just may see a beaver or two if you go there at the right time of day.

Now, I try not to be one of those parents - I let Charlotte roam about the playground as she pleases for the most part.  I figure that it's good for her to test her limits and find out what she's capable of without too much interference from me.  And for as long as we were on the small climbing frame, that was just fine - but then Charlotte headed over to the one designed for the big kids...  Even then, usually I'm fine with it - Charlotte can only get herself so high after all.  But this one was different...  It had a set of nice, easy stairs, just perfect for an almost-two-year-old to climb - up to a height of about eight feet or so!  Then at the top there were openings out to ladders or to a fireman's pole - openings that made my heart catch in my throat.  So I had to supervise Charlotte pretty closely on this one and all was well, but let's just say that I was happy when she decided it was time to check out the fire truck and dolphins at the waterpark.  I don't really want to return to this particular park for a while!  Unless it's to go geocaching, of course; there are several in the park, including a night cache.  The park is located at N 49.14.020 W 122.53.440: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=z7IAXiVD2wGY.ke14vi-3MYtI